


The Last Three

by Instagram



Series: The Doctor, The Master and The Rani [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Arks P.O.V, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 03:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4945405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Instagram/pseuds/Instagram
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four Time Lords survived the Time War.</p><p>(set after TLOTTL with the Master alive and travelling with the Doctor and they find the Rani and Ark)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Three

**Author's Note:**

> Just to be clear this story makes little to no sense and I don't know why I wrote it I just did and I'm really sorry

Four Time Lords survive the Time War.

The Doctor.

The Master.

The Rani.

Ar'tikan'tika (primitive lifeforms, who cannot pronounce his name, call him Ark).

Ark survives because of the Rani - who's way of escape involves a complicated amount of wires, a TARDIS, the twenty ninth dimension and someone (him) to press the on switch while she does the work. It also involves the chameleon arch so when the Rani and him are awakened by the Master and the Doctor after pretending to be humanoids on the planet Galiins they're not particularly in the best of moods. They're fighting and the Rani joins in immediately. Ark gets the basics - the Master tried to take over the universe, the Doctor stopped him and forced him to come with him, later they came to this planet only to find the Rani and therefore Ark.

When the Rani asks how the two survived Ark isn't surprised with the answers. The Master ran, Ark isn't shocked and he barely blinks when he hears how the Doctor was the one to destroy their species (no, he's seen the raw power in the mans eyes).

Arks old - even by Time Lord standards - and is on his last regeneration. The Rani, who's almost fond of him, offers to find a way to extend his life - to give him more regenerations once their on the Doctors TARDIS. He doesn't accept. He almost wants to die - he's had a long life and he misses his species - but won't just yet. He doesn't think the universes can survive being left in the hands of these three just yet (but he doesn't know what he can do to change that).

There just kids, really.

The Master - an insane boy who's been in love with Doctor for centuries. A boy who's so ridiculously smart, even by Time Lord standards, that he can see all the possibilities of Time, the power he can possess, but doesn't have the ability to see what he can't do.

The Rani - a genius girl who has only ever cared for the Doctor and Master (she never cared for family, but that wasn't uncommon among Gallifrey). A girl so smart with dreams of becoming smarter, no matter what (or who) the cost.

And the Doctor - a boy so mad and crazy and in love with life (and the Master, but he won't admit that). A boy smarter than the Master and the Rani combined who only wants to travel. Ark knows that its the ones who have the best intentions that suffer the most pain.

These three have so much raw power and they have too much imagination. Ark, who's old and smart and just a little conceded, is glad that they're always at each others throats. As long as they're fighting - as long as the Doctor manages to stop the Master and the Rani from actually destroying the universe, as long as the Rani is there to make sure the Doctor and the Master don't become mad enough to break the rules of Time, as long as the Master is there to stop the Doctor and the Rani from destroying themselves. Because the Ark can see how enormously powerful the three renegades are by themselves - Rassilon himself has nothing compared to just one of them - but if they, for one moment, all got along? Ark has heard stories of times when just two of them worked together for one cause and they scare him beyond anything. The idea of all three of them, united, fighting for a common cause?

There's not a single thing - no Dalek or Time Lord - that could stop them.

So instead Ark watches the three bicker like children. He can sense that above all the anger the three are so glad that they're all alive (he feels pity for the Doctor, the idea of being the last one makes Ark shudder). He's curious if the Master still sees himself as a prisoner (he's positive that if the Master asked the Doctor would let him go without a question, now that the Rani is alive). He travels with them - he wonders if any of them have realised yet that not a single one has made a complaint about them travelling together, as if it was the only option - and watches the Doctor attempt to help, the Master attempt to destroy and the Rani attempt to have fun.

He wonders, sometimes, how they see him. The Master rarely glances at him (barely saw him, his eyes only for the Doctor and the Rani) and the first words ever made about him that came from the Masters mouth were 'him, Rani, really'. The Doctor is kind to him and is the only one who refers to him by his full name. The Doctor listens to Arks stories as if they're important and talks to Ark like they're equals. Ark wonders what it means that the Doctor treats everyone like that except the Master and the Rani. The Rani is fond of him, like a human is fond of their pet. The Rani finds him amusing, and is the only one of the three that seeks Ark out on the TARDIS (rarely but she still does it). He thinks that, while she would kill him in an instant if it suited her, if the three split up he'd end up with her.

The Master is the cruelest, yet Ark finds him the least scary. The Rani is the most condescending, yet Ark finds her the most honest. The Doctor is the kindest, yet Ark shivers every time those eyes stare directly at him.

He rarely leaves the TARDIS when the three go on their adventures. This is half because he's worried they'd leave without him (not on purpose but they'd simply forget) and half because whenever he leaves the TARDIS and the humming her song plays in his head stops he can hear the emptiness of being one of the last ones.

He wonders what it says about the other threes sanity that they don't even realise it anymore.

Ark isn't surprised when eventually - 17 years, 200 days, 4 hours, 19 minutes, 54 seconds of the four of them travelling, the three Time Lords reuniting (nothing has changed, their always at each others throats, arguing) - they end up on Earth. The Doctor had received a call from an old companion and his eyes had gone hard and the Rani had whacked the Master (she was always a little violent) because she knew that the Master had put that look in his eyes. "I'll be there in a minute," the Doctor had promised before turning off the phone. He'd sat quietly for a while as the Master watched him. Ark had noticed early on that the Master was good at understanding. He and the Doctor and the Rani could have conversations without actually opening up their telepathic minefield or their mouths as easily as anything - the Master was just better at it. 

"Martha Jones needs your help. How utterly disgusting."

The Rani scowled, agreeing with the Master for once, "Humans, leave her be Doctor. They need to learn to get by without you."

The Doctor, as Ark knew he would, set the TARDIS for Earth - what a primitive planet (Ark hated primitive planets).

The Doctor had ran out of the TARDIS as she landed, the Rani letting out an impressive sigh before following him. The Master waited longer, staring at Ark with calculating eyes. Ark raised an eye brow - the Master rarely addressed him - before the Master walked out the TARDIS door. Ark followed - he considered, after this, asking the Doctor to drop him on TttTKkk'ing a planet that he'd quite liked in his youth for him to live out the rest of his days. He found, outside the TARDIS, that he was in what humans would call a base. There were a range of weaker beings weapons - some stronger than most, but all in all the weapons were rather dull - and a range of humanoid creatures who barely noticed him. All their eyes were on the three other Time Lords. 

And then Ark saw him - and how his insides crippled. The man made him feel sick to his very core and his eyes were sore and it needed to be gone and he saw that he was not the only who saw this awful, disgusting being that went against everything Ark had ever known.

The Rani looked beyond furious and she was speaking to the Doctor who looked indignant, "What have you done you daft idiot? This creature is - oh please tell me you didn't travel with it!"

"Look-" the thing tried to interrupt only to receive the Rani's glare.

The Master, who the thing had his gun trained on, spoke, harsh yet playful, "Isn't he awful Rani? A freak of nature? Shoot him please Doctor, show the Rani what happens then."

The Doctor growled, "Master, may I remind you of how Jack Harkness played a key part in your defeat."

The Rani's eyes shot up and she stared at the Master in disbelief, "You disgust me."

The Master didn't respond. The Doctor sighed - he looked so old for his years in Arks opinion - "Jack Martha called me, said you needed help."

The creature - who Ark assumed was Jack - nodded, his face relaxing when looking at the Doctor, "Yeah Doc, there," and the freak of nature continued. The Doctor listened in earnest, solving the problem within an hour - Ark was surprised when the Rani took to helping (something about being bored), he was less surprised when the Master stood back and occasionally threw around an insult. Throughout this experience a male came up to him and politely offered him tea to which Art denied - he had never heard of this tea and did not particularly want to try it. The male, who had introduced himself as Ianto, asked why he wasn't with the others.

Ark smiled, "Ianto they do not really notice me."

Ianto frowned at that, "But why? Aren't you four the last of your species?"

"So?" Ark couldn't see this humans confusion.

"Shouldn't they, well, notice you?" 

Ark chuckled at that - these primitive species were really quite humorous in their idiocy - "I represent everything they despise. To them I'm the reason those three left Gallifrey, in their eyes I represent the stuffy and rigid leaders of the almighty race. I'm an idiot in their eyes."

Ianto, besides being confused by half of what Ark said, replied, "But you're alive unlike the rest of your species. How can they see you as an idiot?"

Ark gave a full on laugh at that, "Oh that's funny. I haven't laughed like that since, well, since the war. Ianto I am going to make this very clear, Gallifreyans were a master race, all of them brilliantly smart. When the war started billions tried to escape, attempted to run away. None succeeded, all being caught, besides two. The Master and the Rani. Those two were leaps and bounds above the rest of us and they did what billions did not, they escaped. The Doctor found other means. The reason I'm here today is because the Rani needed someone to press the on switch of her escape plan. What you're looking at, is a lucky old man. Those three, they're three tortured souls who are too smart for their own good." 

They left quickly after his conversation, but not without the Doctor and the creature sharing a hug with the Rani and the Master sharing a look of horror. Everything went back to before, the Rani attempted to high jack the TARDIS and the Doctor stopping her. The Master tried to blow up a planet and the Doctor stopped him - Ark knew that the Master could care less about the planet, he'd just wanted to see the Doctors face contort into anger. The Rani and the Master stopped the Doctor picking up another stray.

It was all going pretty much what could be expected until they landed on a small planet - similar to Earth - where a war was happening and some idiot humanoids shot the Doctor when he tried to help. Then hell broke loose.

The Rani's impassive face turned icy. The Master's smirk turned hard. The obnoxious humans turned scared. Ark was ordered to take the unconscious Doctor (who wouldn't need to regenerate, not with the bullet so low and his superior Time Lord cells already starting to heal him) back to the TARDIS. 

He waited in the TARDIS for 19 minutes. When the doors opened the Rani was smiling as if she'd just taken a stroll through a park. The Master looked cold, but the Ark could see the satisfaction in the mans eyes. They both stared at him asking him a silent question and Ark pointed to the medi-bay. Ark had never seen Time Lords run as fast as these two. The Doctor was still unconscious and would be for the 5 minutes as his body heals and Ark knew that the TARDIS controls were isomorphic and only responded to the Doctor (even though he suspected if the Doctor left the Rani and the Master alone in here for long enough they could discover a way to break through) so he felt safe leaving the TARDIS to see the damage the Time Lords had done.

Ark stared at the the barren landscape. He could already tell that the planet no longer contained life without his Time Lord senses kicking in. Ark was curious about what would've happened if that shot had been a killing wound. 

He went back in the TARDIS. 

The Doctor had awaken and Ark felt the need to stop him as he charged towards the door. Luckily he didn't have to, as the Master pulled him back, "Doctor they shot you."

"I need to see what you've done, how many innocents you murdered-"

The Rani interrupted, "Not innocent. They shot at a Time Lord." Ark knew that it wasn't because they shot at a Time Lord, it was because they shot at the Doctor.

"They didn't understand-"

"I don't particular care what that lesser species can or can't understand Doctor. They committed a crime, and Rani and I served them appropriate justice."

It hit the Doctor then and Ark wondered how he could feel such sympathy for a species that shot him. "Master, Rani, you - the whole planet?" He gasped, his eyes wide and his fists clenched.

Rani glanced at her nails, obviously bored by the conversation, "Don't be so hypocritical Doctor, you've done it."

The Doctor went quiet - Rani knew just where to hit him - and his shoulders sagged. The Master chuckled, quietly, "You really are a daft fool."

The Rani grins, "Next planet then?"

"I heard that Ingala is rather nice," the Master smirks.

The Doctor stares at the TARDIS door before sighing, "Which century?"

Ark is sometimes curious as to whether these three being together fixes them, or breaks them even further.

Ark - so very old (he'd lost count on his tenth thousand birthday, which had been many centuries ago) - sometimes mused to himself if the three god like creatures living in the TARDIS every properly fought - with the intentions of killing the others - who would win? And then he'd see the Master murder just to annoy the Doctor, and he'd see the Rani torture a young victim to test out a new theory and then he'd see the Doctor breathe in and forgive them, time and time again, and Ark thought it didn't matter. If the Doctor ever became a person who intended to kill, then the whole universe was screwed.

Sometimes, when the Master and the Rani and the Doctor weren't fighting they talk. And sometimes, very occasionally, they laugh. And rarer still, sometimes they enjoy themselves. Ark almost fainted when on his walk into the TARDIS control room - he'd been seeking out the Doctor, he was finally going to ask if he could be dropped off on some nearby planet (he was becoming very old and very tired) - he saw the trio dancing. The Rani was being twirled by the Doctor, who'd thrown his head back in laughter as the Master, who was smirking, held out his hand. The Doctor took it and was immediately dipped, and the Rani watched, amusement and fondness being written across her face. They continued to twirl and spin and dip around the room, the TARDIS playing music from the Assanaian race - who were known for their skill in the musical field, with their bodies being made to make musical notes, and Ark didn't think he'd ever seen anything so beautiful. On Gallifrey dancing was forbidden and Ark had always agreed with this rule, dancing seemed such a primitive thing, but watching this he wondered how he could ever believe that.

The Master spotted him and immediately the relaxed look his face had taken dropped, a harsh mask taking its place, and the dancing was put to a halt. The Rani sighed as if she'd been waiting for this to happen and the Doctor glanced at Ark with a tired look. The three went back to whatever they'd been doing before, the Master rushing to his room but not before glaring at Ark before he left. The Doctor gave the Rani, who was looking rather put out, a strained smile, "He refuses to be happy."

The Rani shook her head, "Oh my precious Doctor, we don't deserve to be happy."

The Doctor chuckled lightly and Ark felt like he was intruding, "We used to be. What changed?"   


The Rani, usually so impassive, gave a pained look, "You did. You used to agree with our plans on what to do with the lower species."

"I was young and so in love Rani. Don't - I made mistakes." 

Then, as if they'd only just remembered that Ark was in the room, the Doctor and the Rani looked at him and the Doctor smiled - forced - before leaving, probably to find the Master. The Rani ran a hand across the panel before looking at Ark, "The Master wants to kill you. I wouldn't mind killing you either - there's a certain satisfaction in killing a Time Lord. The Doctors asked us not to. After this, the Master will want to kill you more. I don't think the Doctors words can stop him much longer. Just beware."

She leaves then and Ark wonders when he changed from being one of the high and mighty Time Lords of Gallifrey to being bossed around by a bunch of spoilt brats.

In the end Ark isn't killed by the Master. It's old age that does it. 

His body has grown frail and he can feel his death coming and the Doctor is the first to come to his aid, "Ar'tikan'tika I can help. We can solve this, I can give you more regenerations-"

"Doctor," his voice has become strained, "Thank you." 

"No, please don't-"

"I'm dying Doctor and it's about time. Don't try and prolong the life of a dead man."

Ark wonders if he should be offended by the fact that neither the Master or the Rani are showing any interest in his death. 

"Rani?" He asks, because he's dying and there's no more consequences.

Her head pokes up, "Yes?"

"I liked you the best."

"I know," because she probably did.

"Master?" The Master doesn't acknowledge him, "I hated you most."

The Doctor stares at Ark and Ark says his final words, "Doctor, you can do so much better then these too."

The last words he hears are, "I know."

And then darkness but not before he thinks that maybe, just maybe, the universe may be able to keep on turning even with these three running wild in it (because maybe, just maybe, they can all keep each other in check).


End file.
